Up and Over Garage Doors Explained

Generally speaking, up and over garage doors can be placed into two distinct categories of lifting mechanism

Canopy Up & Over Garage Doors

Traditionally the most common form of up and over garage door. When fully open, the door protrudes approximately one third of the height of the door thus forming a “canopy”.

Due to the lifting mechanism used in the door hardware, canopy doors provide the maximum drive through width for ease of access. Operation of the door is assisted through the use of torsion springs fixed into the door frame above the opening.

The slight disadvantage of a canopy type door is that the door hardware is only available on doors up to 8ft wide.

Although not ideal for automation, canopy doors can be adapted to open and close through the use of a bow arm convertor and a high quality powerful motor.

Retractable Up & Over Garage Doors

In recent years the popularity of the retractable type door has seen a great increase and is fast becoming the most popular type of garage door. When fully open, the door will retract fully into the garage and be supported on horizontal rails fixed to the ceiling.

Retractable lifting gear incorporates tension springs in the side tracks allowing it to take larger loads making it ideal for doors over 8ft wide or doors constructed from timber panels.

Due to this, all our Woodrite Up & Over Garage Doors are supplied with the benefit of this system as standard.